How many miles on your xs?

mogie

XS400 Enthusiast
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I was just wondering how many miles have you gotten out of your original motor without the need to rebuild? I'm curious how far they can go. What year and miles please?
 
79 with 29k

That's pretty impressive. I don't think these are considered high mileage engines as compared with some other cycle motors but I really don't have any long term experience. My '80 is near 16K but don't know how accurate that is. With the age of these bikes, who knows if the speedo is original. In my state they don't even list mileage on the title for older vehicles.
 
It's essentially a crap shoot. I see no reason why the engines wouldn't last a very long time. The problem is that the older the bike is, the more likely that at least one of the previous owners beat the piss out of it or simply drove it with low/old oil.

I've got the top end off of my '78 with 11,000 miles on it. The only signs of wear I see could only be due to previous owners running the bike with low oil. I think the top end is particularly at risk to oil starvation and/or excessive heat.
 
I was on the Salvation Army toy run last saturday and it was unbelivieably hot ( yes in November) everyone's engine was over heating.

I could feel the heat off my engine and my mates triumph triple was at 108'c :eek:

I have an oil gauge fitted and with the engine that hot (stuck in a 400# bike jam) the oil pressure on tick over was nearly zero :yikes: and that's with 20w 50 bike oil!

I kept the bike revving to keep oil pressure up and after it cooled down everything was fine.
 
'83 DOHC - 20,529 miles / 33,038 kms.

When looking for a bike last year, I looked at and considered a number of small bikes with double my current mileage (mostly Hondas, but a couple of Secas) and running very well.
bcware is right - how a bike is looked after over it's life seems to mean more than mileage. I saw several with half the mileage of mine that I wouldn't have considered owning.
 
!978 with 31,000 miles. Rode it for years back and forth to work 35 miles round trip. Never had any problems. Then when I took it to a guy for restoration ( had been sitting for 25 yrs) he pulled the top end and reringed it. Not sure why unless it had poor compression. The only thing that worries me now is the bottom end. I remember when I first bought the bike and was thinking of the 650 they said it had better crank bearings and more longevity than the 400. Guess I'll find out one way or the other.
 
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